Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 59 (2016) 927939

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/rser

Renewable and sustainable energy reviews solar photovoltaic energy

progress in India: A review
Sarat Kumar Sahoo n
School of Electrical Engineering, VIT University, Vellore 632014, Tamil Nadu, India

art ic l e i nf o

a b s t r a c t

Article history:
Received 20 January 2015
Received in revised form
6 January 2016
Accepted 13 January 2016

The mitigation of global energy demands and climate change are the most important factors in the
modern days. Development and application of solar energy have been regarded by the government of
India and common people, and they thought that solar photo voltaic energy can provide more energy in
future compare to other renewable energies. In the last decade, solar photovoltaic energy research and
development has supported by the central government and state governments. This paper discusses the
progress of current solar photovoltaic energy in India. It highlights the renewable energy trend in India
with major achievements, state wise analysis of solar parks and industrial applications. Finally, it discusses the Indian government policies and initiatives to promote solar energy in India. This review on
solar photovoltaic energy will help decision makers and various stakeholders to understand the current
status, barriers and challenges for better planning and management in this eld.
& 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords:
Solar energy
Photovoltaic
Sustainable development
Jawaharlal Nehru national solar mission
(JNNSM)
Indian's government policies
Ministry new renewable energy (MNRE)

Contents
1.

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
1.1.
Solar energy in India . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
1.2.
Challenges and opportunity towards solar energy in India . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
1.3.
Government support towards solar energy in India . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
2. Recent trends of solar PV progress in India . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
2.1.
Solar Photovoltaic Program (SPV) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
2.2.
Transmission and evacuation of power from solar park . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
2.3.
Problems occurring with photo voltaic technology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
3. Future prospects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
3.1.
Research and development investment in solar power . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
3.2.
Solar electricity for industrial applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
4. Government initiatives to promote solar energy in India . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
4.1.
Solar thermal power plants. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
4.2.
Potential of solar energy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
5. Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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1. Introduction

Tel.: 91 9840263009.
E-mail address: sksahoo@vit.ac.in

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2016.01.049
1364-0321/& 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The demand for the provision of energy is increasing rapidly

and the trend is likely to continue in future worldwide [1]. In
2005, the worldwide electricity generation was 17450 TW h out of
which 16% originated from hydro, 40% from coal, 20% from gas, 16%
from nuclear, 7% from oil and only 2% from renewable sources

928

S.K. Sahoo / Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 59 (2016) 927939

(small hydro, wind, geothermal, etc.) [2,3]. Renewable energy

resources are easily accessible to mankind around the world.
Renewable energy is not only available in a wide range, but also
abundant in nature. Renewable energy sector is meeting at present
13.5% of the global energy demand [2,47]. Renewable energy
sector is now growing faster than the growth in overall energy
market in India. Switching to renewable energy sources for generation of electricity provides beneciary management [8,9] strategies from the economic, as well as establishment of the regulatory commissions in environment point of view. India has followed the global change in power sector by 1998 under the

Electricity Regulatory Commissions Act 1998 to promote competition efciency and economy in the activities of the electricity
industry [10,11]. Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC)
has a key role in rationalizing tariff of generating companies
owned or controlled by the Central Government in consultation
with State Electricity Regulatory Commission (SERC) [12].
At present India is sixth largest country in the world in electricity generation, having aggregate capacity of 149 GWs out of
which 25% from hydro, 64% is from thermal, 3% from nuclear and
about 8% is from renewable energy sources (renewable in this
paper refer to small hydro, wind, cogeneration and biomass-based

Fig. 1. India solar resource [15].

S.K. Sahoo / Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 59 (2016) 927939

power generation, and solar technologies) [13,14]. Based on the

data of National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) [15], Fig. 1
shows that the solar resource available in India. Fig. 2 shows the
solar power installation in India till 31st March 2015 [305]. As of
31st August 2015, the installed grid connected solar power capacity is 4229.36 MW and additional 10,000 MW by 2017 and total
100,000 MW by 2022 [13].
The world's largest solar photovoltaic (PV) power plants that
were completed before February 2015, by capacity are shown in
Fig. 3. The Gujarat state in India had an installed capacity of
approximately 856.81 MW.
1.1. Solar energy in India
The International Energy Agency (IEA) has numerated PV
applications into four categories, namely, off-grid domestic, offgrid non domestic, grid connected distributed and grid connected
centralized [17,18]. A typical PV module is made up of around 36
or 72 cells connected in series, encapsulated in a structure made of
aluminum, depending on the application and type of cell technology being used. The increasing demand of electricity peak load
has activated the utilization of renewable energy for different
kinds of applications area such as heating, ventilation and airconditioning (HVAC) [6,17]. Researchers also nd the potential
application of solar energy in cold storage system and utilization of
thermal and physicochemical properties of different phase change
materials in photovoltaic system. India is highly populated and has
high solar insolation, an ideal place for generating electricity from
solar energy. Because of its location between the Tropic of Cancer
and the Equator, India has an average annual temperature ranging
from 25 C to 27.5 C. This means that India has huge solar

6000

2000
Annual Installations

1800

5000

1600
1400

Cumulative Installations

4000

1200
3000

1000
800

2000

600
400

1000

200
0

0
2009

2010

2011

2012

2013

2014

Cumulative Installations (MW)

Annual Installations (MW)

India Solar Installations (MW)

2015

Year
Fig. 2. India's solar power installations (in MW) [16].

929

potential [19]. The sunniest parts are situated in the south/east

coast, from Kolkata to Chennai. India receives a solar energy
equivalent of more than 5000 trillion kW h per year, which is far
more than its total annual consumption [20]. The daily global
radiation is around 5 kW h per square meter per day with sunshine ranging between 2300 and 3200 h per year in most parts of
India [2]. The average solar radiation incident over India varies
from 4 kW h/day to 7 kW h/day. The solar radiation received over
the Indian land area is estimated to be about 5000 trillion kW h/
year. In June, 2008, a National Action Plan on Climate Change was
announced, which included eight major national missions with
the one on solar energy being the center piece. This mission
envisages a major step up in the utilization of solar energy for
power generation and other purposes. The Jawaharlal Nehru
National Solar Mission (JNNSM) was launched by the Prime Minister of India in January 2010, with a target of 20,000 MW grid
solar Power, 2000 MW of off grid capacity including 20 million
solar lighting systems and 20 million sq.m. solar thermal collector
area by 2022 [2124]. The Mission will be implemented in three
phases. The rst phase will be of three years (up to March, 2013),
the second up to March 2017 and the third phase will continue
until March, 2022. The target for phase-I is to set up 1100 MW grid
connected solar plants including 100 MW of roof top and small
solar plants and 200 MW capacity equivalent off-grid solar applications and 7 million sq. m solar thermal collector area [25]. A new
architecture has been designed for the 1000 MW projects. These
will be implemented through NTPC, Vidyut Vyapar Nigam (NVVN).
NVVN will sell the solar power to the State utilities after bundling
solar power with the equivalent capacity of thermal power. CERC
has announced tariffs for the purchase of solar power by NVVN
[21]. The tariff for 2011 for PV is Rs. 17.91 per unit and Rs. 15.31 per
unit for solar thermal power [24]. The main objectives of the
mission are to help reach grid parity by 2022 and help set up
indigenous manufacturing capacity. Though the energy density is
low and the availability is not continuous, it has now become
possible to harness this abundantly available energy very reliably
for many purposes by converting it to usable heat or through
direct generation of electricity.
The Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission (JNNSM)
announced in 2009 is one of the 8 mission's part of the National
Action Plan for Climate Change (NAPCC) [26,27]. Interestingly in
2009, the cost of generation from PV Solar was signicantly higher
(nearly twice, of what it is today). Moreover, the same was also
very high as compared to grid power price. Government funded
solar energy in India only accounted for approximately 6.4 MW/yr
of power as of 2005, 25.1 MW was added in 2010 and 468.3 MW in
2011. In 2012, nearly all the states in India have signicantly hiked
the power price ranging from 4% to 15%. Fig. 4 shows only 2.1% of
renewable energy share to the Indian electricity grid.
4.9%

0.3% 2.1%

Wind Power

8.4%
Small Hydroelectric
14.3%
Cogeneration
70%

Biomass
Waste to Power
Solar PhotoVoltaic

Fig. 3. World's largest solar photovoltaic (PV) power plants (in MW) [126].

Fig. 4. Indian electricity grid-renewable energy share.

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S.K. Sahoo / Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 59 (2016) 927939

1.2. Challenges and opportunity towards solar energy in India

The Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission (JNNSM), a major
initiative of the government of India, has set itself a goal of
creating an enabling policy framework for deploying 20 GW of
solar power by 2022 [2831]. Indian power sector [30] challenges
are:

 Country of 600,000 villages, where 1/3rd of which does not

have access to grid.

 Nearly 600 million Indians do not have access to electricity grid.

 Peak decit of 12% and energy decit of 11%.
 Onethird of power generated lost before getting used (30% T &
D losses).

 High use of fossil fuel for generation, extensive use of diesel for
back up and captive power units, kerosene lamps.

 Per capita energy consumption of 704 kW h.

 Government policy [32] allows 100% FDI (foreign direct investment) in all segments.

 Yet share of power sector in FDI to infrastructure sectors

increased only marginally from 16% to 18% over 200609. By
contrast, FDI to telecommunications is more than 47%
The Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission [33] was launched
on 11th January 2010, by the Prime Minister of India. The Mission
has set the ambitious target to achieve fast development through
(i) long term policy; (ii) large scale deployment goals; (iii)
aggressive R&D; and (iv) domestic production of critical raw
materials, components and products, as a result to achieve grid
tariff parity by 2022 [34]. Mission will create an enabling policy
framework to achieve this objective and make India a global leader
in solar energy [5,35]. However, the major Solar Manufacturing
Challenges are







Dependent on imported wafers for cell manufacturing.

High cost of nancing/capital.
Competition from China and Taiwan.
Low demand in India.
Lack of technical knowledge especially in the upstream
segment.

Beyond the above challenges, land is also a scant reserve in

India and per capita land availability is low. The amount of land
required for utility scale solar power plants are currently
approximately 1 km for every 2060 MW (MW) generated [35].
Fig. 5 shows the thermal vs. solar installations in MW from the
year 2010 to 2013. Table 1 shows the Utility- Scale Solar Projects in
India in operational and under development till Aug 2015.

Solar Installations (MW)

India Solar Installations (MW)

1200
1000

Thermal

800

PV

600
400
200
0

2010

2011

2012

Thermal

5.5

2013
50

PV

35

184.5

980

1050

Fig. 5. Thermal and PV- India's solar installations (MW) [125].

Table 1
Utility- scale solar projects in India [125].
In-operation

Capacity (MW)

Solar PV
Solar thermal
Total
Under development
Solar PV
Solar thermal
Total

4349
209
4558
Capacity (MW)
7505
280
7785

The cumulative solar installations in India crossed 3 GW mark

with 734 MW installed so far this year. However, in 2014 the
installations forecasted at about 800 MW, a 20% drop year-overyear. Land acquisition delays due to various reasons and uncertainty caused by the anti-dumping case contributed to a slowdown
in installations.
1.3. Government support towards solar energy in India
Renewable energy as one of the current and substantial issues
needs to be investigated in terms of political outlook. The government has initiated a Renewable Energy Certicate (REC)
scheme which is designed to drive investment in low-carbon
energy projects [36,37]. The government has taken some important steps to promote electricity generation by solar system. There
is a large market for photo voltaic (PV) technology [38] and progress has been made in the deployment of small, standalone PV
systems [39,40]. A total of 58 MWe capacity has been installed
through 750,000 systems including solar lanterns, street lighting
systems, home lightning systems, water pumping systems with
small power plants and 1.1 MWe in various applications [41,42,17].
The Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission envisages up scaling
Solar water Heating Collector Area to 20 million sqm,
deploying solar lighting systems in rural areas to 20 million and
enhancing off grid solar application to 2000 MW by 2022 [21].
The government of India through Capital Subsidy
Scheme (National Clean Energy Fund) allocated Rs. 46.80 Cr for the
installation of solar lighting systems and small capacity PV systems, for the installation of 1,20,000 solar lighting systems for the
year 201112 [22,26]. Imports of solar cells are fully exempted
from import tax Generation Based Incentives (GBI): incentives of
Rs. 12.41 per kW h to the state utilities when they directly buy
solar power from the project developers. Grid solar power projects
in the capacity range of 100 kW2 MW each, connected to HT grid
below 33 kV, are eligible under the scheme and 80% accelerated
depreciation income tax benets on renewable energy products
(solar lanterns, streetlights, blinkers and trafc signals) if manufactured under specications laid down by MNRE to avail capital
benets. Import duty on raw materials/consumables for manufacturing the solar PV cells and solar PV modules [43] is levied to
the tune of 1015%.The Indian government is giving incentives/
rebate of Rs. 40006000 on purchase of solar water heater. The
Ministry of New and Renewable Energy has identied renewable
energy R&D as an important factor for developing this sector. R&D
subsidy is 100% of a project's cost in government R&D institutions,
and 50% in the private sector. India has a population of 1.28 billion
as of Oct. 3, 2015 [44] with an annual growth rate of 1.2% (1985
2015) [45]. About half a billion people belong to middle class. Here
Table 2 gives the detail data of state wise installed capacity of solar
projects in MW. Despite increased energy use in India, per capita
consumption (3629 kW h) remains low as against the world
average of 17,620 kW h. Indian per capita electricity use averages
only one sixth that of the world, one-half that of the Chinese, and
less than one-twentieth that of North Americans [46]. The total

S.K. Sahoo / Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 59 (2016) 927939

Table 2
State wise installed capacity of solar projects in MW [16].
Sl. no. State/UT

Total
MNRE
project
MW

State policy MW

REC
scheme
MW

Total commisioned capacity

till 29-05-2015
(MW)

94.75

115.01

37.7

247.46

0.025

0.025

4
20
7.8
16
5
0.025
185.25

1.68
974.05
5
0
73.22
0
297.55

4.6
6
0
0
0
0
80.78

10.28
1000.05
12.8
16
78.22
0.025
563.58

57
12
10.5
789.1
16
0
0
12

185.38
15.42
177.25
65
33.82
39.35
0
59.26

121.32
4.5
7.52
193
98.16
23.4
5
0

363.7
31.92
195.27
1047.1
147.98
62.75
5
71.26

5
2.05
0.1

0
5.16
5

0
0
0

5
7.21
5.1

0.335
0.75
0.025
4.5
0.79
1243

4.237
0
0
0
0
2.56.387

2.14
0
0
0
0
584.12

6.712
0.75
0.025
4.5
0.79
3883.507

2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
Total

Andhra
Pradesh
Arunachal
Pradesh
Chattisgarh
Gujarat
Haryana
Jharkhand
Karnataka
Kerala
Madhya
Pradesh
Maharasthra
orissa
Punjab
Rajasthan
Tamil Nadu
Telangana
Tripura
Uttar
Pradesh
Uttarakhand
West Bengal
Andaman &
Nicobar
Delhi
Lakshadeep
Puducherry
Chandigarh
Others

Waste to Total Grid Interactive Renewable Energy in

India till Jan, 2014=30,178 MW(app.)
Power
Solar PV
0.1%
Generation
7%
Biomass Cogeneration
9%
Power &
Gasification
4%
Small Hydro
13%

931

and exploitation of new avenues of energy supply. According to

[50] technical barriers vary across the type of technology. For
example, in the case of PV, the main technical barriers include low
conversion efciencies of PV modules, performance limitations of
system components such as batteries and inverters; and inadequate supply of raw materials such as silicon [51]. In the case of
stand-alone PV [52] systems, storage [53] is an important concern,
as is the shorter battery life compared to that of the module.
Furthermore, safe disposal of batteries becomes difcult in the
absence of a structured disposal/recycling process. With regard to
solar thermal applications, there are two main technical barriers.
They are limits to the heat carrying capacity of the heat transfer
uids and thermal losses from storage systems [54,55].

2. Recent trends of solar PV progress in India

During the past decade, India has taken steps to utilize the
immense potential for renewable energy [6] sources. The goals of
Indian energy planning include the promotion of decentralized
energy technologies [14] based on renewable resources in the
medium term, and the promotion of energy supply systems based
on renewable sources of energy in the long term. The Indian PV
industry today consists of nine companies that manufacture solar
cells, 23 manufacture modules and about 60 companies that are in
the business of systems integration. There is also a manufacturing
capacity of about 2 million silicon [51] wafers annually. The
industry produced 11 MWp of modules in the year 1999, having a
turnover of about US $100 million. The national program initiated
in the year 1975, is believed to be one of the largest demonstration
PV program in the world today [56]. Electrication is one of the
main infrastructure requirements for the overall rural development. There are about 80,000 un-electried villages in the country. Below Table 2 gives the detail about the Solar Park Project
implemented by SECI (Solar Energy Corporation of India) of these
villages, 18,000 cannot be electried through extension of the
conventional grid. A target for electrifying 5000 such villages has
been xed for the Tenth National Plan. So far, more than 2700
villages and hamlets have been electried mainly using Solar
Photovoltaic Program (SPV) systems [57].
2.1. Solar Photovoltaic Program (SPV)

Wind
67%

Fig. 6. Total grid interactive renewable in India (till Jan 2014)-Source: [16].

grid interactive renewable energy in India till Jan 2014 is shown in

Fig. 6.
India's rapidly growing economy will drive energy demand
growth at a projected annual rate of 4.6% to the year 2010 [47]. It
has been reported that Indias electric power demand are likely to
increase threefold by the year 2051. Indications are that the electric power demand is expected to grow at around 10% per annum
in next 15 years requiring about 10,000 MW of capacity addition
every year over this period [48]. Other studies indicate that by
2020, Indias demand for commercial energy is expected to
increase by a factor of 2.5 [49]. High economic development
requires rapid growth in energy sector. This implies substantial
increases in electric power generation and transmission capacities,

This promotion is being achieved through R&D, demonstration

projects, government subsidy programs, and also private sector
projects. The Government provides nancial support for solar air
heating/drying systems, and also for solar concentrating systems.
Solar buildings have been promoted by the MNRE in an effort to
increase energy efciency; the state government in Himachal
Pradesh has actively promoted the incorporation of passive solar
design into building design. The Solar Photovoltaic Program (SPV)
promoted by the Ministry for the past two decades has been
aimed particularly at rural and remote areas. The Ministry has the
objective that by 2010 they will all have access to power from
renewable energy sources [6,58]. Fig. 8 shows the state-wise total
solar installed capacity in India. The major achievements of SPV
are [59]:

 3600 remote villages will be electried through solar energy.

 7 lakh square meter collector area solar water heating systems
installed [60].

 Rs. 32,000 million loan provided so far by Indian Renewable



Energy Development Agency Limited for 1600 renewable

energy projects
Solar Energy Centre set up for development of solar energy
systems and devices at Gurgaon in Haryana.

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S.K. Sahoo / Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 59 (2016) 927939

Table 4
Evolution of top 10 PV markets till 2014 [127].
Ranking

2012

1
Germany
2
Italy
3
USA
4
China
5
Japan
6
France
7
Australia
8
India
9
Greece
10
Bulgaria
Market level to access the Top 10
843 MW

Fig. 7. State-wise installed capacity-Source: [16].

Table 3
State wise projects commissioned under RPSSGP scheme [16].
Sl. no.

State

No. of projects

Capacity (MW)

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12

Andhra Pradesh
Chhattisgarh
Haryana
Jharkhand
Madhya Pradesh
Maharashtra
Odisha
Punjab
Rajasthan
Tamil Nadu
Uttarakhand
Uttar Pradesh
Total

10
2
8
8
3
3
7
5
12
6
3
4
71

9.75
4
7.8
16
5.25
5
7
6
12
6
5
7
90.8

 A new architecture has been designed for the 1000 MW

projects.

 Largest solarsteam cooking system for 15,000 persons/day set

up at Tirupati Tirumala Devasthanam and 30 MW capacity Solar

Photovoltaic products exported to various developed and
developing countries.
The tariff for current [61] year for PV is Rs.17.91 per unit and
Rs.15.31 per unit for solar thermal power. NTPC Vidyut Vyapar
Nigam (NVVN) has issued request for selection of new grid
power projects of 620 MW capacities. About 450 applications to
set up 5000 MW capacities have been received. Fig. 7 gives the
data of State-wise Installed Capacity of Solar PV generation.

Currently, 71 projects have been commissioned under Rooftop

PV and Small Solar Power Generation Programme (RPSSGP)
scheme with installed capacity of 90.8 MW. The projects have
been commissioned in 12 states as per the details given in Table 3.
Table 4 shows the evolution of top 10 PV markets till 2014.
2.2. Transmission and evacuation of power from solar park
Interconnection of each plot with pooling stations through
66 kV /other suitable voltage underground or overhead cable will
be the responsibility of the solar project developer. The designated
nodal agency will set up the pooling stations (with 400/220, 220/
66 kV or as may be suitable switchyard and respective transformers) inside the solar park and will also draw transmission to
transmit power to 220 kV/400 kV sub-station. The responsibility of
setting up a sub-station nearby the solar park to take power from
one or more pooling stations will lie with the Central Transmission

2013

2014

China
Japan
USA
Germany
Italy
UK
Romania
India
Greece
Australia

China
Japan
USA
UK
Germany
France
Korea
Australia
South Africa
India

811 MW

779 MW

Utility (CTU) or the State Transmission Utility (STU), after following necessary technical and commercial procedures as stipulated
in the various regulations notied by the Central/State Commission. If the State Government is willing to buy over 50% of the
power generated in the solar park [62], preference will be given to
STU, which will ensure setting up of substation and development
of necessary infrastructure for transmission of power from substation to load centers. The designated implementing agency will
intimate POWERGRID and CEA [63] at least 6 months before so
that the planning and execution can be carried out in time [62].
GOI committed the following facilities to the solar project developers for the development of the solar park [64]:

 Land approved for installation of solar power plants and

necessary permissions including change of land use etc.

 Road connectivity to each plot of land

 Water availability for construction as well as running of power
plants and demineralization plant

 Flood mitigation measures like ood discharge, internal

drainage etc.

 Construction power
 Telecommunication facilities
 Transmission facility consisting pooling station (with 400/220,

220/66 kV switchyard and respective transformers) to allow

connection of individual projects with pooling station through a
network of underground cables or overhead lines.
Housing facility for basic manpower wherever possible ix.
Parking, Warehouse etc.

2.3. Problems occurring with photo voltaic technology

The components of complex power of a PV-grid interactive
system due to low radiation and found that actual power is
available at high values of radiation from a PV array and at low
radiation level the array does not provide enough output power.
The reactive power is drawn from distribution transformer and fed
into an inverter and loads and hence methods must be devised to
capture this low radiation energy and converted into actual power
form [65]. The large-scale deployment of solar PV in traditional
electric power systems evaluating the ability of PV to provide a
large fraction of utility systems energy by comparing hourly output of a simulated large PV system to the amount of electricity
actually usable. Under high penetration levels the system will have
excess PV generation during certain periods of the year [34,40,66].
Lund et al. analyzed the problems [67] of integration of electricity
production from uctuating renewable energy sources into the
electricity supply illustrating the magnitude of the problem in
terms of excess electricity production when different Renewable
Energy Sources (RES) are integrated into a Danish reference system with a high degree of Combined Heat and Power (CHP) that

S.K. Sahoo / Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 59 (2016) 927939

933

Coal
China

2200 600

1000

Gas

1950

Nuclear
Renewables
0

1000

2000

3000

4000

5000

6000

7000
TWh
Coal

India

1100

400

200

Gas

850

Nuclear
0

500

1000

1500

2000

2500

3000

Renewables

TWh
Fig. 8. Change in power generation, 20102035.

takes benet of the different patterns in the uctuations of different renewable sources and the purpose has been to identify
optimal mixtures from a technical point of view [68]. Fig. 8 shows
the change in power generation in China and India.

3. Future prospects
Waldau [69] observed that photo voltaic is one of the fastest
growing industries worldwide and in order to maintain this growth
rate need for new developments with respect to material use and
consumption, device design, reliability and production technologies
as well as new concepts to increase the overall efciency arises
[70,71]. Feltrin and Freundlich analyzed several photovoltaic technologies, ranging from silicon to thin lms [72], multi-junction and
solar concentrator systems for terawatt level deployment of the
existing solar cells, and for each technology, identied improvements
and innovations needed for further scale-up [73]. Muneer et al. [74]
described solar PV electricity as the solution of future energy challenges and the modular approach adopted to meet the year 2025
energy demand of six major cities in India: Chennai, Delhi, Jodhpur,
Kolkata, Mumbai and Trivandrum, indicates that the suggested solar
hydrogen based energy network has the capability of providing the
energy requirements. Kondu [75] argues that expansion of solar
energy depends on global climate change mitigation scenarios. In the
baseline scenarios (i.e., in the absence of climate change mitigation
policies), the deployment of solar energy in 2050 would vary from
1 to 12 EJ/yr. In the most ambitious scenario for climate change
mitigation, where CO2 concentrations remain below 440 ppm by
2100, the contribution of solar energy to primary energy supply
could reach 39 EJ/yr by 2050 [76]. EPIA/Greenpeace [77] produces the
most ambitious forecasts for future PV installation. The study argues
that if existing market supports are continued and additional market
support mechanisms are provided, a dramatic growth of solar PV
would be possible, which will lead to worldwide PV installed capacity rising from around 40 GW in 2010 to 1845 GW by 2030. The
capacity would reach over 1000 GW in 2030 even with a lower level
of political commitment. A study jointly prepared by Greenpeace
International and the European Renewable Energy Council projects
that installed global PV capacity would expand to 1330 GW by 2040
and 2033 GW by 2050 [78].
A study by the International Energy Agency [79] estimates solar
power development potential under two scenarios that are differentiated on the basis of global CO2 emission reduction targets.
In the rst scenario, where global CO2 emissions in 2050 are
restricted at 2005 level, global solar PV capacity is estimated to
increase from 11 GW in 2009 to 600 GW by 2050. In the second
scenario, where global CO2 emissions are reduced by 50% from

2005 levels by 2050, installed capacity of solar PV would exceed

1100 GW in 2050.
India, faced with twin challenges on energy and environmental
front, has no option but to work towards increasing the role of
renewable in the future energy systems [80]. The objective of the
JNNSM is to establish India as a global leader in Solar Energy, by
creating the policy [28] conditions for its diffusion across the
country as quickly as possible. The ambitious targets are given:

 New project developers for 100 MW capacity of grid (below










33 kV) connected solar projects (of 100 kW to 2 MW capacities

each) have also been selected. It is expected that 150200 MW
of solar power will be installed in the country by December
2011 [23].
To create an enabling policy framework for the deployment of
20,000 MW of solar power by 2022 [32].
To ramp up capacity of grid-connected solar power generation
to 1000 MW within three years; an additional 3000 MW by
2017 through the mandatory use of the renewable purchase
obligation by utilities backed with a preferential tariff. This
capacity can be more than doubled reaching 10,000 MW
installed power by 2017 or more, based on the enhanced and
enabled international nance and technology transfer. The
ambitious target for 2022 of 20,000 MW or more, will be
dependent on the learning of the rst two phases, which if
successful, could lead to conditions of grid-competitive solar
power. The transition could be appropriately up scaled, based
on availability of international nance and technology [25].
To create favorable conditions for solar manufacturing capability, particularly solar thermal for indigenous production and
market leadership [24].
To promote programs for off grid applications reaching
1000 MW by 2017 and 2000 MW by 2022 [17].
To achieve 15 million m2 solar thermal collector area by 2017
and 20 million by 2022.
To deploy 20 million solar lighting systems for rural areas
by 2022.
JNNSM Mission has set a target of 1000 MW by 2017, reaching
million households. To meet this target, the Mission plans to
provide solar lighting systems to over 10,000 villages and
hamlets and also to set up standalone rural solar power plants
in special category States and areas such as Lakshadweep,
Andaman & Nicobar Islands and the Ladakh region of Jammu &
Kashmir.
The State Government of Andhra Pradesh is developing a solar
farm cluster called solar city on a 10,000 acre land at Kadiri in
Anantapur district. Solar city is expected to attract investments
worth Rs. 3000 crore in the rst phase. Four rms (Sun borne,

934

S.K. Sahoo / Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 59 (2016) 927939

Lance Solar, AES Solar and Titan Energy) have signed a memorandum of understanding with the State to set up their units
there. These companies will be the anchor units in solar city and
have a combined capacity of 2000 MW. Fig. 9 shows the share of
Grid-connected and Off-grid installations worldwide from 2000
to 2014.
3.1. Research and development investment in solar power
India pursuing an aggressive solar energy growth strategy,
creating a very important industry and setting up ambitious midterm targets for the domestic market in the multi-GW scale [38].
By Eleventh Five-Year Plan (20072012) GOI proposed a solar R&D
funding of amount Rs. 400 crore. The working group on R&D for
the energy sector proposed an additional Rs. 5300 crore in
researches, demonstration and development [81] for the eleventh
ve-year Plan, with the two largest topics being: research on
silicon [51] production for PV manufacturing and research on Light
emitted diodes [82,83]. India makes a global leader in solar energy
and the mission envisages an installed solar generation capacity of
20,000 MW by 2020, 100,000 MW by 2030 and of 200,000 MW by
2050. The total expected funding from the government for the 30year period will run to Rs. 85,000 crore to 105,000 crore [83].
Fig. 10 shows the Indian solar PV growth.
Fig. 11 shows the statistic of major countries at the end of year
2014, by cumulative solar PV capacity. China's cumulative solar PV
(photovoltaic) capacity reached just under 30 GW at the end
of 2014.

in line with energy sustainability issues. Primary energy consumption released by shell shows remarkable growth in PV solar
electricity by 2030 [84,85]. Solar electricity is used in many remote
and isolated industrial applications such as trafc lights, telecommunication instruments and geographical-position systems
(GPS) for the last 15 years. Most of remote installations are off grid
or hybrid systems. Off grid systems are independent of public grid
and provide electricity to the load solely generated from solar
irradiation. The hybrid PV diesel systems have additional storage
batteries or diesel generator [86]. Storage battery powered by solar
energy is used in many telecommunication industries. Telecommunication systems need incessant power which assures
continuous operation of the system even during cold or cloudy
weather and hazy days when there is no sunlight. Hence need for
energy storage with sufcient capacity seems to be necessary
which poses some special operational demands in addition to the
requirements of batteries operating in conventional ways [87].
Solar power systems are reliable substitute to be used as an
innovative power source for water desalination plants. It is the
most effective and feasible approach for such systems. In addition,
they are environmentally friendly and economically competitive
compared to traditional methods [88]. The economic outlook for
these systems is more considerable when the system is operating
in remote regions where there is no access to a public grid. In
addition, initial investment, depreciation factor, economic

Germany

38.2

China
3.2. Solar electricity for industrial applications

28.2

Japan

It may be reported that the solar powered systems are reliable

and cost-effective. They are largely applied in industrial processes

23.3

Italy

18.5

U.S

18.3

France

5.7

Spain

5.4

UK

5.2

Australia

4.1

India

3.2
0

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

Cumulative Capacity in Gigawatts

Fig. 9. Share of grid-connected and off-grid installations worldwide from 2000 to
2014 [127].

Fig. 11. Global cumulative solar PV capacity at the end of 2014, by country (in GW)
[126].

5000 5000
5000
4500
4000
3500
3000

2500

2500

2000

2000
1500
1000

500

1000
300
240
750
80 135
65
8 17 20 23 36 45
0.5 1
240
175
0.5 1 4.2 14 20 22 25 32 37 45 110

Fig. 10. Indian solar PV growth (in MW).

Solar Cell

S.K. Sahoo / Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 59 (2016) 927939

Andhra Pradesh Solar Policy

935

Karnataka Solar Policy

Others

9.06

NTPC Building Scheme Projects

10

MNRE-Demostration Program

20.85

Rajasthan Solar Policy

40

JNNSM-Migration Scheme

48

JNNSM-Roof Top Projects

91.8

REC Mechanism

115.27

Maharashtra Solar Policy

125

JNNSM-Phase-I Batch I

130
300

JNNSM-Phase-I Batch II

856.81

Gujrat Solar Policy

100
200
300
400
Installed Capacity (in MW)

500

600

700

800

900

Fig. 12. All India solar PV installations by policy type (in MW) [125].

incentives, cost of PV modules and oil price should also be considered [89,90]. Fig. 12 shows the all India solar PV Installations by
policy type (in MW).
At present India is sixth largest country in the world in electricity generation, having aggregate capacity of 177 GWs out of
which 65% is from thermal, 21% from hydro, 3% from nuclear and
the rest about 11% is from renewable energy sources [91,92].
Although over the years, Indian power sector has experienced a
ve-time increased in its installed capacity a jump from
30,000 MW in 1981 to over 176,990.40 MW by 30 June 2011 but
still there is a huge gap in generation and demand in India hence
need to be establish more generation plants preferably to become
from renewable sources by governmental as well as various private participation [30,11]. At the same time there is a need to
provide energy access to rural areas and reduce import dependence on fossil fuels. India's approach is to meet its energy needs
in a responsible, sustainable and eco-friendly manner. The
National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC) in June 2008
identied the development of solar energy technologies in the
country was to be pursued as a National Mission [93]. Jawaharlal
Nehru National Solar Mission aims at development and deployment of solar energy technologies in the country to achieve parity
with grid power tariff by 2022 [94]. As of June 2011, solar power in
India had reached a cumulative generation capacity of approximately 39.6 MW [23]. This is approximately 0.002% of JNNSM's
2022 target of 22 GW [82].

4. Government initiatives to promote solar energy in India

Government of India introduces several electricity policies in
the last few years have talked about the need and priority to
promote renewable energy. Foremost amongst them is the Electricity Act (2003) which de-licensed stand-alone generation and
distribution systems in rural areas [95,96]. The National Rural
Electrication Policy, 2005 [28,97] and National Rural Electrication Policy, 2006 also stresses the need for urgent electrication
[98]. The New Tariff Policy (2006) stated that a minimum percentage of energy, as specied by the Regulatory Commission, is to
be purchased from such sources [99].
In order to reduce carbon emissions from India, the government currently spends over 2.6% of the gross domestic product
(GDP) on adaptation to climate variability, with specic areas of
concern in agriculture, water resources, forests, health and

Table 5
Top 10 countries for installations and total installed capacity in 2014 [127].

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10

Top 10 countries in 2014 for

annual installed capacity (GW)

Top 10 countries in 2014 for

cumulative installed capacity (GW)

China
Japan
USA
UK
Germany
France
Australia
Korea
South Africa
India

Germany
China
Japan
Italy
USA
France
Spain
UK
Australia
Belgium

10.6
9.7
6.2
2.3
1.9
0.9
0.9
0.9
0.8
0.6

38.2
28.1
23.3
18.5
18.3
5.7
5.4
5.1
4.1
3.1

sanitation, coastal zone infrastructure and extreme events [100].

On average, every 1 GW of additional renewable energy capacity
reduces CO2 emissions by 3.3 million tonnes a year [6,101]. So
there is a great need to promote the CSP in Indian power sector to
meet future energy demand and remove GHG emission for
environment protection [102]. The NAPCC suggested that as much
as 15% of India's energy could come from renewable sources by
2020. Total number of 106 projects accounting solar generations of
40.648 MW have been sanctioned during 20102011 under off grid
STP application of JNNSM [102,103]. The MNRE planned to reduce
carbon emissions (generated by burning the diesel of generators
associated to cell phone towers) by using solar power. India has
250,000 cell phone towers, each of which uses 35 kW of power
depending on the number of operators using them [104,105].
Table 5 shows the top 10 countries for installations and total
installed capacity in 2014.
4.1. Solar thermal power plants
Solar thermal power plants (STE) produce electricity in much
the same way as conventional power stations. STE to generate bulk
electricity is one of the technologies best suited to helping to
mitigate climate change in an affordable way, as well as reducing
the consumption of fossil fuels and its produce electric power by
converting the sun's energy into high temperature heat using
various mirror or lens congurations [106]. STE plants are considered to have a minimum life of 20 years. According to some
estimates, India can have a STE installed base of 45 GW by 2020.

S.K. Sahoo / Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 59 (2016) 927939

A large amount of Indian STE output is consumed in Delhi, Haryana, and Punjab, drawing upon supply sites in both Rajasthan and
Jammu and Kashmir [107]. Population centers in Gujarat are also
well positioned to extract power from Rajasthan. Development of
alternate energy has been part of India's strategy for expanding
energy supply and meeting decentralized energy needs of the
rural sector. The strategy is administered through India's Ministry
of New Renewable Energy (MNRE), Energy development agencies
in the various States and the Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency Limited (IREDA) [108]. A number of solar thermal
applications have been developed, which include water/air heating, cooking, drying of agricultural and food products, water purication, detoxication of wastes, cooling and refrigeration, heat
for industrial processes, and electric power generation. This
technology route also includes solar architecture, which nds
utility in designing and construction of energy efcient buildings
[82]. In the solar energy sector, some large projects have been
proposed, and a 35,000 km2 area of the Thar Desert (Rajasthan)
has been set aside for solar power projects, sufcient to generate
7002100 GW. The lists of solar thermal power plants to be constructed under JNNSM are:









Lanco Solar 100 MW Rajasthan

Reliance Power 100 MW Rajasthan
KSK Energy 100 MW Rajasthan
Godavari Power 50 MW Rajasthan
Aurum Renewables 20 MW Gujarat
Corporate Ispat 50 MW Rajasthan
Megha Engineering 50 MW Andhra Pradesh

4.2. Potential of solar energy

The Government of India's National Action Plan on Climate
Change (NAPCC) released in mid-2008, by the Prime Minister's
Council on Climate Change identies eight critical missions,
including Nation Solar Mission, National Mission for Enhanced
Energy Efciency and National Mission for Green [109,110] India.
Among these, the Solar Mission would be implemented in 3 stages,
nally deploying 20,000 MW Grid Connected Power Plants, and
generating 2000 MW of off-grid solar power covering 20 million
m2 with collectors, by the year 2022 [111,36]. The scenario is likely
to get better as India has one of the largest programs in the world
for deploying renewable energy based products and systems [112].
Idea proposed three decades ago to desalinate sea water using
solar energy for the Thar Desert of India still remains to be tested
in Rajasthan [113]. Solar energy may be utilized to meet the
drinking water and other needs of the communities living in
remote areas with the help of solar distillation and desalination
because it is economical, easy to construct and maintain [114116].
Likewise, deployment of large number of a solar photovoltaic
pump operated drip irrigation system could optimize both energy
use and water use efciency [117].
Off-grid [118] solar lantern system as small-scale interventions
for poorly served rural populations would also need to be
aggressively promoted by removing obstacles and encouraging
low-cost options to enhance affordability, meaningful participation, improvement in local energy governance, and training local
technicians to ll the support gap [119,120]. Implemented properly, solar energy may be far more economical than fossil-fuel
based lighting systems such as kerosene lanterns [112].
Exploring the potential of ultra-large scale solar farms may be
another area of interest [118]. Studies note that to meet 50% of the
total energy demands the proposed area for collection of solar and
wind energy by means of ultra-large scale [34] farms in fact will
occupy a mere fraction of the available land and near-offshore
area, e.g. a solar PV electricity [18] farm of 26 km2 area required for

India represents 0.01% land area of Rajasthan [122]. Currently,

solar energy systems in India are almost entirely based on PV
technology. Since this solar thermal technology has been successfully implemented in developed countries, with high solar
potential, the development of this technology is imperative in
Rajasthan [123].
International emphasis on the smart grid, which combines realtime intelligence into the power network through its integration
with computer networks and information technology, has sharply
accelerated since it benets consumers and society at large. Further, for roof-top installations to be a success, and renewable
energy [6] broadly, developing the smart grid is necessary. As India
needs to dramatically extend its transmission lines to fulll its
surging electricity demand, the country could leap-frog development by directly building smart grids in un-electried regions.
Investments in the smart grid could help arrest the signicant
transmission and distribution losses, reduce overall energy consumption via active demand management, and manage intermittent renewable sources in real-time. For this purpose, India
must consider the IEEE guidelines for smart grids and conduct
research to ascertain whether grid conditions warrant modication to international standards [124]. Fig. 13 shows the total
installed solar capacity projection for India. Fig. 14 shows the
percentage of new installed solar PV capacity worldwide in 2014,
by country.

5. Conclusion
In the present paper, the solar energy statuses in India, regional
renewable energy status as well as state-wise renewable energy
status have been analyzed. Indias energy consumption has been
increasing at a relatively fast rate due to economic development.
With an economy projected to grow at 89% per annum, rapid
urbanization and improving standards of living for millions of
Indian households, the demand is likely to grow signicantly. India
needs to realize the vast potential of renewable energy and need
to step up effort for attaining the goal of by 2020 i.e. 20% reduction
in GHG, 11% reduction in consumption of energy by bringing about
attitudinal changes, 20% share of renewable energy and 20% conservation of energy from the year 2011 till 2020. These targets are
attainable and not only provide cleaner energy but also open a
new eld for providing employment opportunities to millions of
people who are unemployed or disguised employment. This
momentum then needs to be maintained so that India attains a
target of having 70% renewable energy use by 2050. Gridconnected renewable power generation in India has seen a spectacular growth in recent years most notably since the beginning of
2010. Initiating with a very low base of renewable in 2000, the

16

15.2

13.4

14
12

Power (in GW)

936

10
8

6.8

4.6

2.7

2
0

0.2

0.3

0.5

0.6

2010

2011

2012

2013

3.1

1.3
2014

2015

2016

2017

2018

2019

Fig. 13. Total installed solar capacity projection for India.

2020

S.K. Sahoo / Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 59 (2016) 927939

Fig. 14. Percentage of new installed solar PV capacity worldwide in 2014, by

country [126].

installed capacity of grid-connected renewable has reached

27.5 GW in June2013 and more than 33% of it has come about in
last ve years and over 7 GW of this is in the form of wind. The
major impetus of this development comes from the National
Action Plan on Climate Change that promises to deliver 15 per cent
of the total electricity energy from renewable by 2020. Through
this paper tried to discuss the solar photovoltaic energy in India
and highlight the major achievements, analysis of solar parks,
industrial applications and Indian government policies and
initiatives which can impact the ambitious missions taken up by
Central and State governments. Further, there are lots of issues
emerging out of the discussions in the future, it require immediate
attention that can support in mitigating the potential barriers and
challenges and provide impetus to solar initiatives in India.

Acknowledgments
The author would like to acknowledge the nancing support
from Department of Science and Technology (DST), Government of
India, Project no. DST/TSG/NTS/2013/59. This work has been carried out in Solar Energy Research Centre, School of Electrical
Engineering, VIT University, Vellore, India. The authors would like
to sincerely thank the reviewers for their valuable comments and
recommendations to improve the quality of the paper.

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